Valherios ended his Telephone Conversation with Kyrie.

Kyrie returned to the Kyrie Army’s encampment, while Valherios remained in the royal encampment.

What an absurd story.

Valherios dismissed Kyrie’s words that way.

A papal house in the first place? What nonsense is that? There is no way such a position can be inherited. Only the most devout and most powerful cleric may be called by that title.

As he dismissed it, one thought flashed through his mind.

No. But is Myriad Star Arts not something any sincere believer can manifest? At least, that is, if every Pope throughout history has not lied to us.

In that instant, Valherios realized he had fallen into a strange self-contradiction.

If the authority of Myriad Star Arts was truly an authority any sincere believer could manifest, then there was no reason the royal family could not become the papal house.

Are you prepared to make a contract with the twin stars of fate and infinity?

Yes, Your Highness.

Then enter that sanctuary and place both hands upon the twin golden steles.

Once they discovered the method of manifestation, they would only need to control the information and release it little by little.

Hallucination magic tools and auditory hallucination magic tools, the elixir of eternity—no. Should it now be called sacred radiance? In any case, it is nothing more than a false blessing created with that elixir.

Just as the royal family now treated the training method for sword aura reinforcement.

Conversely, if the authority of Myriad Star Arts was in fact not something just anyone could manifest, then there was no reason to continue serving the current Pope as Pope.

Why was the Myriad Star Church called the Myriad Star Church?

Was it not starlight that illuminated all?

The compensatory desire toward those chosen bloodlines of the great houses had certainly existed as one reason the Myriad Star Church had become the continent’s universal religion.

Therefore, if even that starlight of the Myriad Stars descended only upon a chosen few, there was no reason one of those chosen few could not emerge from the royal family.

Valherios was a wise man.

Kyrie.

He acknowledged that Kyrie had not driven a blade into his thigh, but into his mind.

As an individual, he was a transcendent martial artist; as a ruler, he was a man of unprecedented ambition.

He was the clearest bolt of lightning, burned onto the retina and never to be erased.

But.

Valherios recalled Saint Sirius’s face.

It was the face of the overseer who had watched the royal family for three hundred years.

He also thought of the face of his younger sister, so precious that even putting her in his eye would not hurt.

His younger sister, whose sincerity had been recognized, who had received special admission into the academy of the Papal See, graduated, and begun clerical life as a deacon.

A hostage.

In the history of a puppet house spanning thousands of years, he was not the only prince or king who had attempted rebellion.

Valherios was not the first, nor the middle, nor would he be the last.

All of it belonged to the Myriad Star Church.

“Your Highness.”

A sworn warrior approached and called to him.

“Hm?”

“His Grace the cardinal summons you.”

“Tell him I will go at once.”

Apparently, what had happened mere dozens of minutes ago had already reached Saint Sirius, who was staying at Cophion Cathedral.

Valherios departed for the cathedral without even a single escort knight.

Step. Step. Step.

“Did you summon me?”

The cathedral chapel.

“What did you speak of with Kyrie?”

Saint Sirius stood with his back turned, gazing at the upright cross that embodied the Myriad Stars as he asked.

“He recognized the wisdom of His Holiness.”

Valherios spoke the agreed-upon truth.

“And so you crossed blades before a campaign?”

“I could no longer listen to such absurd claims, and in that situation, the only way to cover that wisdom again was to behave as though my honor had been insulted.”

It meant that Kyrie had discovered the assassination plan against him, and Valherios had replied that no such plan had existed in the first place.

It was not exactly a lie.

That was only proper when the person before him was a highest-ranking cleric capable of discerning the truth or falsehood of every word through the Prayer of the Eye of Truth.

“Did he seem to believe you?”

“No.”

“No?”

“He was already suffering from a persecution complex. On the day he came to Inquisitor Deneb and caused a disturbance…”

“The day he came to interfere while I was instructing you and I sent you out before scripture study had ended.”

“Yes. Do you remember what he said then? He said this to Inquisitor Deneb. That you people had tried to divide me from my sister and kill my father.”

Slide.

Saint Sirius turned.

Beneath damp silver hair, features like those of a porcelain doll were revealed.

Long-lashed green eyes swept over Valherios with the gaze of a reptile.

“Please recall the report Inquisitor Deneb submitted from Rikenta. He has already tried to kill Inquisitor Deneb. He is cooperating for the moment only because Inquisitor Deneb spoke of the mutant demonic beast.”

“You mean he has been hostile to us from the beginning.”

“Has His Holiness not already ordered the archbishop of Astreion suspended from his duties? Andromeda, too, was prepared for war with the royal family during the corpse-waste plains suppression operation. Kyrie may be capable of seeing from a national perspective for an Astreos, but in the end, his essence is still Astreos. If something immediately makes his blood boil, he will take up a sword, come find you, and stab you without caring what happens afterward.”

Valherios continued speaking, forcing himself to sound calm.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

His heart felt as if it might burst out of his mouth.

“I understand. Hearing you speak, your words have reason.”

Saint Sirius turned back again.

“Then why do I see fear of me in your eyes?”

Valherios did not ask what kind of question that was supposed to be.

“Do they not say that one cannot love what one is incapable of fearing?”

Instead, he bowed respectfully and withdrew from the cathedral.

“Hoo, hah.”

He let out a deep sigh and looked up at the night sky.

When he imagined all those countless shining stars as the Pope’s eyes, he truly felt as though his breath would stop.

Father.

Valherios thought of the Viceroy’s face.

Kyrie?

He also thought of Kyrie’s face.

He wondered why those two faces had surfaced at the same time, then soon realized it.

How could this be?

They had said the words Valherios wanted to hear.

Valherios understood why Kyrie had become so famous.

From the bodily mutilation vow to Imperator of the Empire.

That path of his, in which he had ultimately done everything he wished to do.

That clarity unique to one who was honest with himself.

It had stolen everyone’s eyes.

Even though he himself is one-eyed.

Valherios gave a bitter smile and admitted it.

He wanted to do as Kyrie said.

“…”

Valherios could not sleep a wink all night.

Dawn.

“Krrr.”

“Go.”

He released one courier dragon.

A letter urging the Dawn Council to hasten their steps was tied to its ankle.

The capital of the Ancient Empire was called by countless names.

Cursed land, evil dragon’s nest, place where the stars fell, pit, black abyss.

“What nonsense.”

Department Dean Piaget of the Hall of Purity stood with his white coat fluttering, looking at the sight of the old capital spreading below the mountain.

The city once called Soletaraon was beautiful.

Even the half-ruined buildings that remained were enough to show how prosperous this place had once been.

The stone structures built by the combined power of magic engineering and nonhuman architects were five times taller than the insulae that the Empire’s greatest engineers could build today.

The dome where, by now-vanished magic, they were said to have tamed and ridden wyverns was so vast that the opposite end seemed distant, and the dried canal cutting across the center of the capital was deep enough to make one believe the legend that it had once connected to the current Grand Canal of Astreos.

The mountain on which the department dean stood was the same.

According to soil testing, this mountain, where stone pillars now collapsed among grass and trees, had not originally formed naturally.

Over the thousands of years of Ancient Empire history, each time the imperial palace had been expanded, the gardens and retaining walls attached to it had also been expanded, until at some point they had become as enormous as a mountain.

Its grounds easily surpassed the headquarters of Astreos, the headquarters of Flammerios, and even the headquarters of the royal family.

It was a truth that showed, in fragment, just how dazzling the magic civilization of the Ancient Empire had been.

“Department Dean.”

“I am listening.”

One Doctor approached and called to him.

“The corpse army has begun responding.”

“From where?”

“All directions.”

Piaget’s eyebrow twitched for a moment.

All directions.

It was not unexpected, but it was too soon.

Perhaps they might not be able to perfectly time everything before the withdrawal.

As one who had already dedicated everything to truth, he did not regret his life, but thinking he was fated to merge before reaching the sky made him feel the remnants of an attachment he had believed no longer remained even as a single grain.

“Hurry the withdrawal. Not a single seeker of truth must throw away their life in vain. The path of scholarship is long and arduous. The more comrades we have, the better.”

“I shall do so.”

“Above all, are they not all future doctoral candidates? We must take good care of them.”

“That is indeed truth itself.”

The Doctor answered so, yet did not withdraw.

Piaget half-turned his head and raised one eyebrow again, expressing his question.

“Department Dean.”

“…”

“Please come with us. We still need you.”

The Doctor pleaded.

Department Dean Piaget felt a shallow, spiteful attachment.

“There are three others besides me, are there not?”

He cut away that lingering attachment without mercy.

“I shall teach those arrogant ones the truth. The truth of the Ancient Empire and of humanity. I am a seeker of truth, but also an educator. They are infinitely similar paths, yet ultimately incompatible ones, so everyone must make a choice at the end.”

“Are you not the one among us who has reached the deepest truth? Please, remain in research…”

“On the day we heard the story of the elixir of eternity and the old things, we all reached truth. Only the choice of whether to live according to truth or not remained. I have chosen to practice it in this way.”

The Doctor looked at the broad shoulders of the man who had been his teacher for more than a hundred years.

“Congratulations… on your conversion.”

“Always live according to truth.”

Department Dean Piaget turned his head and smiled.

The Elector Princes would come, and they would face him.

And at least the majority of them would die.

[“…I will not tell you to fight for me. I am not so great a man. Nor will I tell you to fight for the house. Right now, you are under my command, not Astreos. Then why do we fight? Why do we willingly advance toward those terrifying mutant demonic beasts, the corpse army, and the Hall of Purity?”]

On one bright summer day.

[“For duty and rights. This duty is one we owe to the Myriad Stars, but also one we owe to ourselves. We must protect our own lives. Lives blessed by the grace of the Myriad Stars, free of disease and blessed with lasting youth, lands without famine and springs that do not run dry! The strength and money you have built beneath me through loyalty and ambition until now! You have both the duty to protect all of it and the right to do so!”]

I stood before the soldiers and shouted.

[“I will help you! I, Kyrie of Peleusnata Astreion Astreos-Rikenta, will help you! I, born the child of a prostitute, who became the child of a duke and finally the husband of a Viceroy, intend to protect both my life and yours!”]

I was gradually getting used to speeches like this.

[“So you, too, must do your utmost to protect one another’s lives!”]

“Waaaaaaaah!”

“Kyrie, Kyrie, Kyrie!”

Even now, however, when tens of thousands of eyes looked at me, it felt strange.

Ah, this place was not Cophion.

It was another city near the corpse-waste plains, where my main force had advanced ahead of time.

Once we passed only a few more cities, the corpse-waste plains would truly be right before us.

All of those few cities were presumed collaborators of the Hall of Purity and were therefore targets of suppression.

We planned to send most of the soldiers that way, while I and the Elector Princes would take only the elite of the elite and cross the corpse-waste plains toward Soletaraon, the capital of the Ancient Empire.

Me, Andromeda, Erica, Severic, Vicher and Vichera, Valherios, Saint Sirius, Narji, and Tyren.

Every house and every force was scheduled to gather at Soletaraon.

I did not know whether Valherios had truly been won over by my words.

In truth, it did not matter even if he had not.

If he had been won over, that was good.

Even if he had not, he would know that I had already noticed their operation, so this time they would either give up or prepare far more subtly.

If they gave up, that was good as well.

And even if they prepared subtly, on that chaotic battlefield, it would all be ruined completely.

I could guarantee it.

On a board where doctoral candidates were rising from all directions and mental waves were erupting everywhere, they would set aside an execution unit meant only to deal with me, and even make that unit chase only me?

Did that make any sense?

In less than ten minutes, they would run into a Doctor and have half the unit destroyed.

[“For our future, let us go!”]

I drew the crystalline holy sword and pointed it ahead.

Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.

I, Frey, Joi, Blue Hydrangea, Vane, Paisen, Augusta, and the soldiers began marching.

【Hero’s Journey, Stage 12】

【Stage 6: Military Exploit】

【Detailed Objective 3: Conquest】

【Conquer the headquarters of the Hall of Purity, the capital of the Ancient Empire.】

【Reward upon success: Thunderbolt Body increases by 100%】

【Punishment upon failure: Thunderbolt Body decreases by 100%】

For each of our futures.

For our future.

Chapter 235

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